“Not Only Microsoft: the Maturing of the Personal Computer Software
Martin Campbell-Kelly Not Only Microsoft: The Maturing of the Personal Computer Software Industry, 1982-1995 In the thirteen years following the introduction of IBM's first personal computer in 1982, Microsoft rose from being a small concern to become the colossus of the PC software industry. However, Microsoft was not the only software company to profit from the PC-software boom: firms like AutoDesk, Lotus Development, WordPerfect Corp., Ashton-Tate, Novell, Borland, Adobe Systems, Aldus, Symantec, and the Santa Cruz Operation all had their time in the sun. Whereas some of these firms lost their markets to Microsoft or stumbled through strategic errors, others remained hugely successful, and their relative obscurity is largely due to the contemporary obsession with Microsoft and its billionaire founder. he early history of the personal computer is well known. It has fea- Ttured in the press, in numerous popular histories of computing, and in television programs such as Robert X. Cringley's "Triumph of the Nerds."1 Within the business history community, the story is known at a deeper level, partly through the inevitable osmosis that ac- companies the daily use of a personal computer, but also through arti- cles such as Richard Langlois's study of the microcomputer industry, MARTIN CAMPBELL-KELLY is a reader in computer science at the University of War- wick, England. My work on the history of the software industry has been supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (award number R000237065). I would like to thank my research as- sociates at Warwick University, Dr. Mary G. Croarken and Dr.
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